A mounting ear is a type of bracket that connects a component to a support structure, such as a server component on a server rack. A typical mounting ear 102 is shown in FIG. 1. The mounting ear 102 has a front plate 104 and a side plate 106, both with holes 108 for receiving screws. As seen in FIG. 2, side plate 106 can be attached to a component 202 by screws 204. As seen in FIG. 3, the component 202 with mounting ear 102 is mounted on rails 302 of a rack by screws 304 through the front plate 104; similar connections may be present on the rear side (not shown) to provide support at the four corners of component 202.
As seen in FIG. 3, component 202 may have a variety of jacks 306 for data and power connections. Often these jacks are easily accessible without any need to access the interior of the rack, such as the configuration shown in FIG. 3. However, it may be necessary to run data or power cords further back into the rack to reach jacks that are not as easily accessible as jacks 306 in FIG. 3. Space must therefore be reserved on the sides, top or bottom of component 202 to allow such cords to pass. Since the cords will not occupy the full length/width/height of the reserved space, there will be a spacing gap by which air and contaminants can reach the interior of the rack. Additionally, if space is reserved above or below the components 202, the number of other components that can be attached to rails 302 may be significantly reduced.